THIS IS MY CITY: The Melbourne Sharpie Subculture Scene
Friday 16 November 5:30pm – 7:30pm. Free.
The Sharpies, peculiar to Melbourne, were a much-misunderstood part of the 1970s culture. Former Melbourne Sharpie gang member, Julie Mac, will share her story from that time. This is to coincide with the exhibition, Putting it out there! Melbourne in the 1970s.
Julie Mac, author of RAGE – A Sharpie’s Journal 1974-1980 and SNAP – Sharpies’ Urban Folklore – Australia 1952-1987, is a social worker and former Melbourne sharpie gang member. To indulge her passion for storytelling and Australian Folklore, Julie founded Macedon Ranges Olde Town Tours earlier this year and loves to entertain with stories of cops, crooks and curious tales. Her current projects are finding evidence of colonial folk magic practices in the Macedon Ranges, research for a twilight tour of her local cemetery and finishing a Bachelor of Criminal Justice at Federation Uni.
Queen Victoria Markets: Livelihoods, Traditions and Change
Tuesday 20 November, 5.45pm. Bookings essential
‘When the stallholders have gone home at the end of the day of trade, you can shut your eyes, you look up the aisles and it could be 1928, it could be 1958, it could be 1878…I have memories of people who are no longer here. It’s the people that make the market. It’s the people.’
Writer and photographer Tim Webster will talk about his project Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market, an unprecedented work of oral history, eight years in the making.
For 140 years, Queen Victoria Market has been the heart of the city, full of life and cosmopolitan culture, a centre of innovation and commerce, and the source of Melbourne’s unique rich cuisine.
Tim has produced an illustrated anthology of the oral histories of the Queen Victoria Market which takes you behind the counters to reveal intimate views of the market’s unique way of life. Drawn from more than a hundred and eighty interviews, Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market (Thames & Hudson) explores the values and ideas within the city’s heart.
Emeritus Professor Charles Sowerwine, Chair RHSV Heritage Committee will speak briefly on the battle to save the Queen Victoria Market.
Tim Webster is a Melbourne born photographer and writer whose work focuses on cultural and environmental themes. Exploring livelihoods, traditions and change, Tim travels widely and works with various clients documenting heritage architecture. Tim’s photography and documentation is a service to help fulfil legal requirements of permit conditions prior to the alteration or demolition of heritage structures. His work to date has included historic piers, wharves, stadiums, offices, hotels, courts, garages, depots, factories, kilns, sheds, stations, residences and places of worship. www.timwebster.com.au
Putting It Out There: Melbourne in the 1970s is an exhibition that explores the turbulence of the time, at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) until 14 January, 2019.
Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne. http://www.historyvictoria.org.au/
